Building construction



Feb 27, 934, H. W- SCHlCK 1,949,220

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION Filed June 13, 1931 ffii ` Patented Fes. 27, 1934UNTED STATES gmi'rsu'r OFFICE 9 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in building construction.

In certain types of buildings, such as auditoriums, gymnasiurns andathletic held houses, difiiculty has always been experienced inproviding a satisfactory roof. In buildings of the type indicated, theroof areas are large and generally carried on steel trusses or girdersto reduce the cost of construction. The main practice heretofore hasbeen to use concrete slabs and in order to keep such slabs withinreasonable limits of thickness and weight, they have necessarily beenlimited in length for relatively short spans. Further, in publicbuildings of the type indicated, such as auditoriums and theaters, thequestion of acoustics is very important, particularly on amount of thelarge areas of the roofs or ceilings. Ordinary concrete slab roofconstructions as heretofore used, if left exposed on the underside, arenot satisfactory from an acoustic standpoint, so that it has beencustomary to employ various expedients to provide sound insulation, suchas the addition of layers of sound insulating material to the undersidesof the concrete slabs after the latter have been put in place.

One object of my invention is to provide an improved buildingconstruction, such as a roof or ceiling particularly adapted forbuildings such as gymnasiums, auditoriums, field houses, theaters andthe like, which is of relatively light weight per unit of area, whichwill be of such strength that relatively long spans may be employed, andwhich will possess certain highly desirable characteristics from thestandpoint of acoustics and heat insulation.

Another object of my invention is to provide a building construction,such as indicated in the preceding paragraph, which may be made up andset in place at relatively low labor and material.

costs.

Another object of my invention is to provide an improved method orprocess of constructing a slab for building construction having thecharacteristics indicated in the two preceding paragraphs.

Other objects of my invention will more clearly appear from thedescription and claims hereinafter following.

In the drawing forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 is abroken top plan view of a portion of a roof, ceiling or deckconstruction illustrating one embodiment of my improvement. Figure 2 isa vertical, longitudinal, sectional View corresponding to the line 2-2of Figure 1. And

(Cl. 10S-l) Figure 3 is an enlarged, vertical, sectional viewcorresponding to the line 3-3 of Figure 1.

In carrying out my invention in a roof of a building, the roof willpreferably be constructed with a plurality of I-beam girders or purlins,as indicated at 10-10, suitably spaced and supported at their ends onthe walls of the building or columns in any approved manner. To completethe roof and cover the spaces between the girders 10, I employ aplurality of slabs, each of which is indicated generally by thereference character A. Each of said slabs, in its completed form,comprises a sheet metal pan or trough which, when in place, is invertedas best shown in Figure 3. Considering the pan in its inverted position,the same has a top web 11, depending side walls 12-12, the latter havingflanges along their lower edges, as indicated at 13-13. The anges 13 aremade re-entrant, that is the same are bent upwardly and inwardly, asviewed in Figure 3. The pans are preferably left without any end walls,as clear from Figure 2.

Each pan is provided with a filler, indicated at 14., said fillercompletely filling the pan, the bottom surface thereof, as viewed inFigure 3, being iiush with the corner edges 15 of the side walls 12.Imbedded within the ller 14, is a reinforcing element indicated at 15,said reinforcing element, as shown, preferably comprising a relativelyheavy gauge Wire mesh, the side edges of which are hooked over there-entrant iianges 13, as indicated at 116.

The slabs A, which are nished off square at their ends, as bestindicated in Figure 2, are laid side by side and extend lengthwise fromone beam or girder 10 to the next beam or girder 10 and, preferably, aspace will be left between opposed ends of the slabs, as indicated at17. Each flange 13 of each pan is slit near its ends, so as to leave theend portions of the flange, as indicated at 113, parallel with the mainweb or top 11 of the pan. Said straight sections 113 are provided inorder to attach the slabs at their ends to the flanges 110 of the beams10, the attachment being eected through boltsll--ll the heads of whichare imbedded in the filler 14 and the shanks extended through suitableopenings in the flanges 110 with the nuts 118 secured to the bottom endsthereof.

In order to render more eiective the beam construction provided by theside walls and anges 12-12 and 13--13 of the slabs when the slabs areplaced side by side, a plurality of pins 19-19 will preferably beemployed, said pins being each secured to one of the pan walls 12 as bywelding, indicated at 119, and the projecting end passing through analned opening in the adjacent side wall 12 and partly into the filler14. In this manner, as will be apparent, relative vertical shift betweenthe side walls of adjacent slabs is prevented.

In carrying out my invention, the slabs A are preferably made asfollows. The sheet metal pans or troughs are first formed with the sidesand flanges bent to fnal condition. The pans are then set down rightside up and temporary retaining walls, such as boards, applied over theends thereof. Each of the pans then has poured into it the materialconstituting the ller 14. This filler 14 is preferably a special mixturecomprised of a specially prepared cement, water and fine sand or otheraggregate. The cement employed is of that type which produces what isknown as an aerated concrete, that is a concrete which is very muchlighter per unit of volume than ordinary concrete mixtures due to thecement, when the water is added, decomposing the water and producinggases that in turn produce voids or air bubbles. Such mixtures arepoured in a very Wet or sloppy condition to about one third the depth oithe pan. The reinforcing element 16 is then applied on top of the wetmix and when hydration takes place, the mix expands to about three timesits original volume and because of its nature will pass through theinterstices of the screen reinforcing element 16, completely filling thepan and passing around and over the re-entrant flanges 13. The filler isthen permitted to set and, if necessary, the exposed surface of thefiller is shaved off flush so as to present a surface flush with thecorner edges 15 of the pan. During this step of pre-casting the slabs A,the pins 19 will iirst be attached by welding to the proper side wallsfrom which they project and, to receive the projecting ends in theadjacent slabs, the latter will have temporary plugs in place while thenller mixture is expanding and setting, which plugs are withdrawn beforethe slabs are put in place. Similarly, the bolts 18 will be held inplace while the iiller mixture is expanding and setting so that thebolts 18 will be in proper position after the slabs have been cast.

With slabs having a ller of aerated concrete, as above described, asurface is formed on the undersides thereof when the slabs or pans areinverted for application to the roof, which possesses very desirablesound insulating qualities, eliminating the necessity of any additionallayers f or coatings of special sound insulating material.

Further, because of the character of the filler 14, the slabs possessdesirable qualities from a heat insulation standpoint. Gbviously, also,the weight of the filler is very much less than that of ordinaryconcrete oi.' the same thickness. By casting the aerated concrete llerin pans as described, the slabs possess relatively great strength,thereby permitting the slabs to be made for longer spans than wouldotherwise be possible with ordinary concrete slabs. As heretoforeindicated, the adjacent side walls 12 and iianges 13 of the slabsprovide effective beams extending transversely between the mainsupporting beams 10 and in addition, the cast llers 14 brace the panformed beams against lateral buckling so that, although the roofstructure is relatively light, it possesses great strength even withrelatively long spans between the main beams 10-10.

By employing areinforcing element such as the wire screen 16, danger offractures or ssures in the filler 14 is minimized, as will be apparent.

Roofs or ceilings of the character described being almost universallyfiat, any suitable weather-protecting arrangement may be employed on thetop thereof, such as rooiing paper laid thereover.

As will be apparent from the foregoing description, the slabs A may beformed and cast at plants where the conditions for making the same aremost suitable and then taken to the building where the same are to beemployed. Obviously, the slabs may be applied or put in position with aminimum labor effort and the completed wall of the buildingconstruction, in addition to being relatively light per unit of area andof economical construction, possesses highly desirable characteristicsfrom the standpoint of both sound and heat insulation.

I have herein shown and described what I now consider the preferredmanner or" carrying out my invention, but all changes and modificationsare contemplated that come within the scope of the claims appendedhereto.

I claim:

1. A roof construction including: spaced supporting beams; slabsextending between and covering the space between the beams, said slabscomprising inverted sheet metal pans containing a pre-cast ller; andmeans disposed within the plan area of the pans for attaching the slabsto the beams.

2. A roof construction including: spaced supporting beams; slabsextending between and covering the space between the beams, said slabscomprising inverted pans of sheet metal containing a pre-cast ller, theside walls of the pans having integral re-entrant flanges imbeddedwithin the fillers; and means for attaching the slabs to said beams.

3. A roof construction including: spaced supporting beams; slabsextending between and covering the space between the beams, each slabcomprising an inverted pan of sheet metal with a pre-cast ller thereinand reinforcing means imbedded Within the ller; and means for attachingthe slabs to said beams, said means including iianges formed integrallywith the sheet metal pan.

4. A roof construction including: spaced supporting beams; slabsextending between the beams, each slab comprising an inverted pan ofsheet metal containing a pre-cast ller with a reinforcing elementimbedded within the filler, the side walls of each pan having integralbent flanges at their lower edges extended and imbedded with-- portingbeams; slabs extending between the;

beams, each of said slabs comprising an inverted pan of sheet metal witha pre-cast filler therein, the side walls of the pans extendingtransversely to said beams, said side walls of the pans having flangesalong their lower edges and the side wallsf of adjacent pans lyingagainst each other; means extending between and connecting adjacentpairs of pan side walls whereby each pair of flanged side walls providea beam extending transversely of said rst named beams, said means beinglocated at spaced intervals along said side walls and at pointsintermediate the ends thereof; and means for attaching the slabs to saidfirst named beams.

6. A roof construction including: spaced supporting beams; slabsextending between the beams and supported thereon, each of said slabscomprising an inverted pan of sheet metal with a pre-cast filler thereinhaving a reinforcing element imbedded within the filler, the side wallsof the pans having re-entrant flanges along their lower edges imbeddedwithin the lller and to which the edges of the reinforcing element areattached; means connecting adjacent side walls of the slabs; and meansfor attaching the slabs to said supporting beams.

'7. As an article of manufacture, a sound insulating slab for buildingconstruction, said slab comprising: a sheet metal rectangular pan havingside walls formed with re-entrant flanges; and a filler of aeratedconcrete and Within which said iianges are imbedded.

8. The herein described process of making a slab for use in buildingconstruction which includes: rst providing a sheet metal pan having sideWalls with flanges along the edges of said side walls, each of saidflanges, for a short distance at each end thereof, being normal to theside wall and the intermediate portion of the ange bent inwardly of thepan; partially filling said pan with a wet mix of concrete adapted tobecome aerated; placing a perforate reinforcing element in the pan withthe ends thereof adapted to hook under said bent anges; allowing saidmix to expand and partially pass through the perforate reinforcingmember and over said inclined flanges; and allowing the concrete mix toset.

9. As an article of manufacture, a slab for building constructioncomprising: a sheet metal rectangular pan, side walls of the pan beingflanged with portions thereof extending within the space dened by thesheet metal pan; and a filler of aerated concrete within the pan andhaving its exposed surfaces substantially flush with the edges of theside walls of the pan, said flanges being imbedded within the concreteller.

HARVEY W. SCHICK.

